The Left’s attack on Democratic Congressman Brian Baird, who had the temerity to visit Iraq and report that he saw signs of progress, has been much noted, as for example by Jeff Jacoby in today’s Boston Globe. The liberals’ attack on Baird has been carried to perhaps its most ludicrous extreme by MoveOn.org, which has has launched a television ad campaign against Baird. You can see their ad here. In »

Lt. Col. Steven Jordan was exonerated yesterday of charges pertaining to the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Jordan was the only officer to face a court-martial over that abuse. The jury concluded that he did not engage in the abuse and did not authorize it. I didn’t follow the trial and thus cannot opine on the verdict, but nothing in the accounts I’ve read suggests »

The Wall Street Journal has run two intriguing stories related to Clinton campaign fundraising this week. Yesterday’s story by Brody Mullins involved the Paw family of Daly City, California, that has donated a total of $200,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005 while the head of the house is making a living delivering the mail. The house in which the family lives is the size of a matchbox, though it matches »

Muqtada al-Sadr has just announced a six-month suspension of military activity by the Mahdi Army to provide for the “rehabilitation” of that force, which has more or less splintered. The suspension includes a cessation of attacks on American forces. It’s unclear how much practical effect this edict will have, but one would think that it can only lead to further reduction in sectarian violence. Via Power Line News. »

In the New York Sun, Ira Stoll takes an advance look at the new, slightly more refined (book) version of The Israel Lobby by Harvard’s Stephen Walt and the University of Chicago’s John Mearsheimer. Stoll finds peculiarities that it shares with the pseudoscholarly essay from which it is derived. The book’s official publication date is next week, and I understand that the authors have been careful to keep advance copies »

Here’s one that appears at first glance to be the tale of some border patrol agent’s employment beef. Because a small border paper reported this incident it likely will get no wider attention, but it should: Early that shift, four East Indian nationals crossed the international bridge. All were temporarily detained under federal guidelines while officers notified the National Targeting Center, which runs background checks for possible ties to terrorist »

The Weekly Standard has just posted the sixth edition of the Iraq Report, by Kimberly Kagan. This installment, denominated The Iran Dossier, is focused entirely on Iranian activity inside Iraq over the last 15 months. Previous reports in the same series are accessible here. Michael Goldfarb writes that to his knowledge there’s really been nothing quite as comprehensive in detailing Iranian support for Iraqi militias and the “special groups.” He »

At the Counterterrorism Blog Doug Farah and Steven Emerson have posted important reports supporting Audrey Hudson’s Washington Times story on the Justice Department’s sponsorship of the ISNA convention this weekend in Chicago. Farah reports: I know, from talking at length with people directly involved in the case, that in fact the national security section did NOT sign off on the decision, protested the decision, and are apoplectic that the decision »

James Q. Wilson may be the most prominent social scientist in the United States. Today he wrote us with a “summary of a fascinating Los Angeles Times story about how the Santa Barbara City Council was persuaded not to paint a blue line across the city showing how high the ocean would rise if Al Gore’s statement that it will be 23 feet higher were true.” Professor Wilson’s writes: On »

Kate Stith-Cabranes is the Lafayette S. Foster Professor at Yale Law School. She served as a Dartmouth trustee from 1989-2000. Professor Stith-Cabranes and I were Dartmouth classmates, she being among the hardy group of 33 in our class who were the first women to graduate from Dartmouth. I met Professor Stith-Cabranes when she flew out to Minneapolis to represent Yale Law School earlier this year at the swearing-in of Minnesota »

We wrote here about the television commercials that Freedom’s Watch has produced, featuring veterans and their families, that urge Congress and the public to continue supporting the Iraq war. The commercials are well done, and convey the simple message that the Iraq war is important and winnable, and that we should allow our troops to see the mission through. The ads are appearing in the context of a blizzard of »

Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation — based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and with branches around the world — purports to be an innocuous charity which collects funds to help Muslims in poor countries. But this fa »

Ralph Peters devotes his New York Post column today to an interesting interview with General Odierno. Reading General Odierno’s comments on the Iranian dimension of the challenge we confront in Iraq, it’s hard to be optimistic: ASKED about Muqtada al-Sadr, Odierno responded: “He’s a figurehead . . . erratic in his behavior . . . unpredictable. . . but he’s the individual who reaches out to the Shia nobody else »

Yesterday I noted Audrey Hudson’s Washington Times story reporting that the Justice Department is “co-sponsoring” the ISNA convention starting later this week. At the Counterterrorism Blog, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross disputes Hudson’s story. Gartenstein-Ross reports: Both the headline and opening paragraph of the article state that the Justice Department is co-sponsoring the 2007 ISNA convention, which begins on Aug. 31. I spoke with a senior DOJ official who informs me that this »

Actually, given the exigencies of Presidential campaigns, Fred Thompson left before dinner. But I did have the opportunity to be part of a small group who chatted with him and asked him questions. Thompson was in Minnesota today for a variety of functions, including an appearance at the Minnesota State Fair. That convinced me that he is in the race to stay. No one would work the state fair circuit »

In our most recent installment of “Doing that wudu that they do so well,” we noted the Wall Street Journal’s editorial disapproval of the ACLU’s hypocritical support for the installation of footbaths for Muslim students at the University of Michigan Dearborn. The Journal unfortunately missed the underlying issue involving the insistence of Islamic groups that taxpayer funds support their religious rituals. It is the explanation for the appearance of the »